This is not a dime.
June 2, 2009
I paid allowance today. It is June 2nd, so I am doing a pretty good job, IMHO, by actually paying on the second of the month.
Allowance gets paid in our family on the first of each month. It is the kids’ job to collect their allowance. They invoice and collect, just like a proprietor does of a small business. Their chores are their business and they need to invoice and collect from me each month.
The boys have been verbalizing the need for me to pay allowance as well as to collect on some recent lawn mowing jobs for the past eight days. So I was a dutiful mom today and I stopped by the ATM machine and picked up a good amount of cash so I could pay allowance within a decent amount of time of the due date. Allowance is due the first of the month in our family. I should try to pay my vendors on time and teach my kids by good example.
I came home from work this afternoon and said, “I am ready to pay allowance.” The boys gathered around the kitchen table with me. I asked them what they were due.
Max said he was owed $15. Max mowed half of the lawn over the weekend, so that amount was correct in my mind. Max also knows that he is not getting allowance in June, because of a financial dispute that we are having. (If you want to know more about that, let me know and I will tell you.)
Jon said that I owed him $45, for allowance as well as a few other chores he had completed.
“Jon, what about the half of the lawn you mowed over Memorial Day weekend?”
“Oh,” he said.
Doggone it. Why can’t my kids collect what they are due? That is another important thing I am trying to teach these kids of mine! Get what is yours, people!
So Jon determined that I owed him $63. I had lots of twenties. I was able to pay him $60 easily. But finding the other three dollars was a bit more complicated.
I dug through my change purse and counted out quarters, dimes, nickels, in fifty cent increments.
“Hey, this is not a dime!” Jon retorted.
For some reason, I had a five pence piece from the United Kingdom in my coin purse. I tried to foist it off on Jon as a dime. He caught me.
Another good skill to teach your kids. Make sure the money is good and in a currency you can really use. Teach them a few times. Then try to foist your unusable change on them and see if they catch on. 
Justine
